The present invention relates to capacity management and particularly to a system and method that balances production capacity between different production technologies.
In the supply of products, the supply chain performs the functions of material purchasing, transformation of materials into intermediate and finished products, and distribution of finished products to clients. Supply chain management has become important in meeting the goals of reduced inventory, increased productivity, and enhanced competitiveness. Manufacturing and distribution facilities have limited resources and capacity; hence, not every client request may be met, in that some may be promised but unfulfilled, some may receive inadequate supply, and others may be rejected. Consequently, effective management of capacity in supply chain management, without excess capacity loss, has become an important aspect for a product supplier who needs to control manufacture or distribution.
In the supply chain, clients transmit demands that may include a request for a particular quantity of a device design to a supplier by a specific date. The supplier plans its internal or external manufacturing schedule according to these received demands, and allocates capacity for manufacturing products to satisfy each client. After receiving orders corresponding to demands from clients, the supplier starts to manufacture the products.
In some specific industries, such as the semiconductor industry, IC (Integrated Circuit) foundries continuously develop advanced technology to reduce the production unit cost. Therefore, advanced and low level technologies may co-exist in one IC foundry. The IC foundry may have several factories fabricating wafers using different production technologies, such as advanced 0.13 um, 0.15 um, and 0.18 um technologies, and the low level 0.25 um and 0.35 um technologies. The trend and goal of the IC foundry is to replace low level technology with advanced technology; however, the advanced technology of today is the low level technology of tomorrow. That is, the development of production technology never ends.
Some products can be produced by advanced technology or low level technology. However, clients always seek low unit cost to obtain maximum profit. Since the production unit cost of advanced technology is reduced, IC foundry capacity for advanced technology is overloaded and cannot service all clients, and low level technology capacity is not always fully occupied.